Posts Tagged ‘entrepreneurship’

Making a business is just like making any complex new thing – there are new tools and materials to become familiar with, new skills to be learned in manipulating them, having a plan, perseverance and acquiring that strange combination of mania and fear that is the hallmark of the experienced entrepreneur. The result, with some luck, is a machine that excretes more money than it consumes.

We will start off with an introduction by Laurie on legal matters, then I will start off by listing the names and outcomes of the ten
businesses I have started over the last 35 years (ranging from high tech to pure art), and offer some lessons learned. Then we will open it up and see where things go.

16

02 2012

Many members of Pumping Station: One will be attending and helping to produce BARcamp Chicago. Press release follows.

On August 21-22, Chicago will host its 5th annual BARcamp Conference. Come to BARcamp Chicago 2010 to learn from and mingle with Chicago’s most talented and innovative computer and technology enthusiasts in an impromptu, informal setting. BARcamp Chicago is an un-conference, meaning event participants are the people who run the event, give the presentations and host the various activities throughout the weekend.
Here is what they have lined up for you:

Many talks and demos concerning a wide range of technology topics

Socialize with Chicago’s top technology enthusiasts

A drunken panel discussion

Geeky/technology related movies that run all night

Free food and drink

BARcompany – Start a business over the weekend

Random other activities

Guests from a multitude of backgrounds will be in attendance, including programmers, developers, engineers, tech students, open-source advocates, entrepreneurs and business professionals. Participants are encouraged to share, learn and break off into smaller focus groups, brainstorm and collaborate on any project or idea. Professional networking is highly recommended.

Words really cannot describe this event! Take a look at the videos and pictures linked from their website: http://barcampchicago.com/

BARcompany

Returning to BARcamp this year is BARcompany, which challenges small groups of participants to come up with an idea and create a company around it in about a day’s time. The resulting companies and ideas are presented at the end of the weekend to the conference attendees and to a panel of judges made up of local, influential people in the technology community. The team who organizes the best company has a chance to win prizes which may include server hosting for the developed web application, co-working space and possibly even some start up capital.

More Information

The event is expected to draw several hundred attendees and is free and open to the public. The majority of talks and activities will be between the hours of 10 AM and 7 PM each day. Complimentary food and beverages will be provided as well as activities on Saturday night through Sunday morning.

17

08 2010

This month (tonight!) our guided tour speaker is Erin Robinson of Ivy Games. If you’re a fan of adventure games and the game industry moves away from your favorite genre, what are you to do? Erin decided to start making her own. After a making a few award winning games and giving them away for free, she decided to make games her career and create Puzzle Bots, which was recently named one of the Pax 10. Puzzle bots was produced through a small studio, which means it was made with a lot less money and a lot more hacker ethic. Erin will be talking about what inspired her to take this difficult path, the process of making her idea into an actual product, and the awesome along the way.

The doors will open at 7pm, the talk will begin at 8pm. I hope to see you all there!